All week, we waited to see if we would get some big update on Mitch McConnell. In June, ambulances rolled up to McConnell’s Washington home, and shenanigans have been unfolding ever since. It was McConnell’s collapse in mid-June that apparently set off a 53 DAY hospitalization. Weeks later, McConnell – or perhaps “McConnell” – issued two proof-of-life photos and a couple of half-assed explanations for his lengthy hospitalization. He claimed that he had the flu, and that he fell in his DC home. The proof-of-life photos are still bizarre, and they still have an uncanny-valley vibe. But I digress – we were waiting for this week’s update, given the abundance of shenanigans. And here it is: McConnell has been “discharged” from the hospital.
Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, said on Thursday that he had been discharged from a rehabilitation facility after a nearly eight-week medical absence, announcing in a statement that he would continue recovering at home as the Senate takes its scheduled August recess.
“On the advice of my doctors, I’ll maintain an intensive regimen of physical therapy from home during the state work period, and I’ll continue to engage with my staff and colleagues on important Senate business,” Mr. McConnell said in a statement.
A spokesman for Mr. McConnell did not say whether the senator would return to the Senate when the chamber, which is scheduled to begin a five-week break starting Monday, returns to session in September.
Mr. McConnell’s absence from Congress began in June when he was hospitalized after falling unconscious at his home. In July, Mr. McConnell, 84, broke a long silence by saying he had suffered from a fall and a “mild” case of pneumonia, and had since been transferred to a rehabilitation center to continue his recovery.
The episode was just the latest in a string of medical issues for Mr. McConnell, who relinquished his leadership role in 2024 and announced last year that he would retire at the end of his seventh term in January 2027. It has fueled mounting public anger about a Congress dominated by elderly lawmakers who have served for decades, at a time when many voters say that the officials leading the country are simply too old.
This is sort of funny, right? “A spokesman for Mr. McConnell did not say whether the senator would return to the Senate when the chamber, which is scheduled to begin a five-week break starting Monday…” Dude went AWOL from the Senate for the better part of two months, then magically, his health improved just in time for the Senate’s five-week break. *Chef’s kiss* I’m going back and forth between “disgust that a sitting, octogenarian senator is getting paid to do nothing” and “well, at least ol’ Mitch hasn’t cast a vote since early June.” Anyway, everyone’s sticking to the “Mitch McConnell is alive” story so there’s nothing we can do. There’s some stuff Gov. Beshear can do, absolutely. There’s something the Senate can do as well. We’ll see if any of them do anything though.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Mitch McConnell’s office.
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- United States Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Republican of Kentucky) speaks to the media following the weekly Senate policy luncheon. McConnell stopped speaking in the middle of his opening remarks and was escorted away from the podium before returning to answer questions and saying, “I’m Fine” in the US Capitol in Washington, D.C. Featuring: Senator Mitch McConnell Where: Washington, District of Columbia, United States When: 26 Jul 2023 Credit: CNP/startraksphoto.com
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- United States Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Republican of Kentucky) speaks to the media following the weekly Senate policy luncheon. McConnell stopped speaking in the middle of his opening remarks and was escorted away from the podium before returning to answer questions and saying, “I’m Fine” in the US Capitol in Washington, D.C. Featuring: Senator Mitch McConnell Where: Washington, District of Columbia, United States When: 26 Jul 2023 Credit: CNP/startraksphoto.com
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- United States Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Republican of Kentucky) speaks to the media following the weekly Senate policy luncheon. McConnell stopped speaking in the middle of his opening remarks and was escorted away from the podium before returning to answer questions and saying, “I’m Fine” in the US Capitol in Washington, D.C. Featuring: Senator Mitch McConnell Where: Washington, District of Columbia, United States When: 26 Jul 2023 Credit: CNP/startraksphoto.com
What’re the chances that after a brief/sudden relapse, he’s “dead” by next week?
Yeah, I believe the same. I still keep remembering that one brief line in his ‘first message’ where he mentioned he had a slight case of pneumonia. I still think we’re going to hear he died of it.
If he’s ‘home’ I would hope TMZ and other reporters begin to hang out in front of his house–both in KY and DC hoping they can get the answers
There is no such thing as a slight case of pneumonia in an 84 year old, especially one with underlying issues. Investigative reporting used to be a thing in the media. But they’re too busy consolidating and laying off reporters to send someone out to knock on a few doors and talk to a few people to find out what the hell is going on. They just regurgitate the BS they’re handed by a staff which appears to be engaged in a massive coverup. I guarantee that some people know what is happening, and it would take very little digging to uncover the truth.
I was wondering the same thing also…
I believe he’s alive but non-verbal, hence the photos but no videos.
Or, what are we calling them now? Moving cameras?
Where the hell is the press? It’s stunning to me that this story is completely ignored. Aren’t there any Woodward and Bernstein successors out there? This would never been un investigated 20 years ago. The laziness is so disheartening. The forth estate has relinquished all their power and this administration is the result.
My father was a US Attorney 25 years ago and he held the press in such high regard. I was taught that the forth estate was essential to keep power in check. Those days are sadly over. I don’t know how they hold their heads up.
I believe he’s been nonverbal for months.
Also, Beshear has made clear there is nothing he has the power to do.
I mean, he was basically non verbal before whatever in June happened, so it’s not a stretch to believe now. There’s no way he’s doing anything under his own power.
My stepmother had a stroke at the end of Feb. She was in the hospital then rehab. She can’t speak and is paralyzed on her right side. She can however be lifted into a chair and could be posed for a picture. I think that is what is going on here. I do think he’s alive but he’s not able to communicate or even comprehend what’s going on.
I’ve thought that from the beginning. He’s effectively brain dead. Even if this pic is real, you can tell that the lights are on but nobody’s home.
Just to clarify – being disabled and aphasic from a stroke is not the same as brain dead. But I agree – it’s very likely one of these scenarios.
I, too, think has had some sort of stroke that’s left him unable to communicate verbally, among other issues. I do think he has some capacity as he can look into a camera and smile, but I’ve seen animals trained to seemingly smile when directed.
Most interesting is that McConnell can’t vote in the Senate, where Todd Blanche has just lost another R vote in his nomination process to be Attorney General.
I thought he’d already been discharged to Jesus.
Or the devil.
Remember the puns:
Rigor Tortoise has set in.
He’s on Eternity Leave.
The problem is, he’s been such an insipidly smug POS for so long, there’s no real reserve of pity or even respect, he’s been so openly contemptuous of basic decency and fair play. So there’s no good will to burn through. People are going to come for him with pitch forks. I mean. How many Americans get to take two months off at full pay with no explanations requested, then promptly dip for a 5-week paid holiday? ….precisely none. It calls attention to how entitled these pale male stale creatures are, and they deserve to go extinct.
I’m gonna be really picky here: The NYT reported: “Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, said…” But “said” and “announcing in a statement “ are not exactly the same things. I have no idea what’s really going on, but I’m still waiting for proof of life. I believe he and his team — ahem — have made at least one vote by proxy, but I’m not unhappy that the Republicans in the Senate will have one less vote for the foreseeable future.
I hope his children have whatever support they need with whatever it is that’s going on.
YankeeDoodles, Perfectly said. My biggest fear is that phantom/ghost Mitch will continue voting in the Senate to outlaw abortion nationally, to enact the Save America law, which would disenfranchise at least 20 million voters, etc. If he’s dead, how does he have the right to vote? No, really. If he’s dead, how does he have the right to vote? Does that mean a dead Democrat gets the right to vote, too. Can Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s ghost get to reclaim the presidency? The last one I would go for.
I’m with you, @JFerber, FDR would wipe the floor with Trump without breaking a sweat, from a wheelchair, whilst smiling broadly. He’s the only president that never seems to age, in retrospect, the further in time we are from his era, the more vivid he becomes. He’s never anachronistic. Whereas Reagan seems like a re-animated corpse, pardon my imagery, Gore Vidal called him a triumph of the embalmer’s art. Eeew. But true.
Senators have to be physically present to vote. In the House, they can have someone else go to the floor for them and place a vote. That mechanism isn’t in place in the senate.
“ well, at least ol’ Mitch hasn’t cast a vote since early June”
He has, though!
He voted “by proxy” in committee. He supposedly talked to the Chair and told him how he should vote on Mitch’s behalf (about SNAP benefit cost sharing).
Cover ups can be worse than the crime.
Unless they roll him in front of a microphone and cameras with reporters…it’s still a Weekend at Bernie’s situation to me.